Two minutes late, but right on time
When a member of Elim Brazil's visiting team lost her passport in London, the race was on to get her to Liverpool in time for the ferry.
Imagine being in a foreign country’s capital city on a mission trip and realising you’ve lost your passport!
That’s what happened to one member of the team from Elim Brazil. We had a team of 38 musicians and dancers from Elim Brazil visiting, hosted by the team at Kensington Temple (KT). They’d led worship nights and toured the city. Then, on the day they were due to leave for Liverpool to catch the ferry to Northern Ireland, Adriana, one of the team, realised she had lost her passport.
After some frantic Googling, we confirmed that she couldn’t travel on the ferry without a passport. The rest of the team said their tearful goodbyes as they got on the coach and left for Liverpool.
Pastor Marcelo from the KT team knew someone who works at the Brazilian consulate, so we jumped on the Tube and rushed over there. It was due to close at 1pm, and we got there at 1.02pm, but Marcelo’s friend was waiting outside to bring us in.
At every stage, God showed us ridiculous favour. All the consulate staff were heading out for lunch, but one stayed behind to fill in all the paperwork for us. The paperwork was sent to the head of passports, who had to approve it. We all know that the wheels of bureaucracy generally turn slowly, but the Lord is able to grease those wheels!
We were told to come back in an hour, so we went for a coffee, and by the time we came back, there was a brand new passport ready to be placed into Adriana’s hands. What usually takes at least a week had been done in less than two hours, praise God!
Since everything had been sorted so quickly, we decided to jump in the car and take Adriana from London to Liverpool to try to catch the ferry with the rest of the team. By the grace of God, while observing the speed limit, we made it to the Stena Line terminal in time for Adriana to join her fellow Brazilians and board the ferry!
God’s favour is just amazing. He worked through so many people to make this miracle happen: Pastor Marcelo and the team at KT, the husband of a church member who works at the consulate, several of his colleagues and even the head of passports. The hand of God moves, and miracles happen!
This article was first featured in the Your Elim newsletter. You can read the Your Elim newsletter here, and sign up to the newsletter here.